To be clear, this transaction can be implemented in an educational and child-nurturing manner that is not at all gimmicky or clownish. Indeed, I have come to see the practice of balloon animal twisting (in a volunteer capacity) as a powerful and positive social intervention; it sits perfectly in a graduate program committed to making the world a better place.

Finding the Red Thread of Information in Balloon Animal Twisting

From the start of the workshop, balloon animal twisting is seen as unequivocally informational. Inspired by Bates’ (1999) idea of the “red thread of information” underlying all things, and enacting the unique “meta-perspective” of our field, we focus on its information structures and patterns (Hartel, 2020). Specifically, balloon animal twisting is analyzed through Lloyd’s (2010) holistic conception of three “information modalities.”

• Textual & Documentary Information: There is a modest popular literature and instructional multimedia for balloon animal twisting. Twisters also create and employ a key, menu-like document which helps children select an animal.
• Social Information: Students design and practice affirming, educational scripts that engage the child recipient and their adult chaperones. It is a perfect moment to teach about the animal kingdom and fortify a young person’s autonomy (examples appear in the video).
• Embodied & Corporeal Information: Technical acumen and dexterity are the heart of the workshop. In hands-on tutorials, students master a dozen different balloon animal forms, which I call “The Menagerie.” Along the way, they develop “Balloon Sense”—an embodied knowledge in their fingers that anticipates a balloon’s pressure, behavior, and potential.

Theorizing Balloon Animal Twisting

Elevating the conversation to a graduate school level, workshoppers ask an ontological question: What is balloon animal twisting? An answer is found in the Serious Leisure Perspective, a theoretical framework of leisure that harmonizes with Information Science. It suggests multiple manifestations for twisting—such as a one-shot leisure project , a making and tinkering hobby, or avocational devotion. Each of these settings is a distinct, socially-constructed information environment (Hartel, 2003). We also critically inquire: Where are the animals in Information Science? This leads us to the exciting frontier of Multispecies Information Science (Solhjoo, 2025, 2026) and a greater appreciation for the beyond-human realm.

From the Classroom to Public Libraries

To extend theory into practice, students design an original balloon twisting program suited to public libraries’ early information literacy initiatives. This element is grounded in the American Library Association’s Every Child Ready to Read program. Twisters discover how its “Five Practices” of talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing can be animated through balloon animal demonstrations, stories, and puppetry.

Becoming a Balloon Artist

As well, the course invites enrollees to embark on a deeper, more personal creative journey. One learning outcome stated on the Syllabus is to develop a unique identity as a balloon artist. Across the half-semester, they document their progress in weekly, curated selfies (a sample appears below).

Students of the course develop identities as balloon artists, a process that is captured in weekly selfies of their balloon twisting adventures. (Images used with permission. See the video for credits.)

Graduates of the course have presented themselves as a friendly zookeeper to highlight a concern for the animal kingdom; another leaned into performance art, as an anime character who twists in full regalia (catch it in the video!). The workshop is a safe place within an otherwise serious curriculum to experiment with an entirely new, colorful, and fantastic self-expression.

Building a “Balloon Bridge” to Information Science

A capstone of the workshop is an assignment called “The Balloon Bridge.” As the title suggests, the undertaking aims to metaphorically bridge the craft and our academic discipline. Small groups collaborate on projects such as:

• Animal Facts, Jokes, Stories, and More, creating a reference handbook filled with educational content to share with children.
• Information, Clothing, and Self-Presentation, exploring clothing as embodied information, a nascent frontier (Hartel, 2025).
• Twisted Sisters, designing an entrepreneurial program that empowers teenage girls to launch their own small balloon-twisting businesses.
• Website Prototype for an Amateur Balloon Animal Twister, an exercise in information architecture.
• The Ethics of Inflated Information, drafting a “Twister’s Code” to navigate complexities of privacy, intellectual property, and disinformation.

Each project brings together balloon animal twisting and the principles of Information Science in unexpected yet fruitful ways. In a past offering of the workshop, an outcome of The Balloon Bridge assignment was The Balloon Animal Personality Test, an app that matches an individual with their totem balloon animal (a concept which serves as the comical peak of the video).

A “Final Examination” 

As a final examination of sorts, the twisters share their newfound ability with the community. They volunteer as balloon animal ambassadors in their own social circles, neighborhoods, and libraries. This requires a big and sometimes challenging step that shifts attention from material and tactical production of balloon critters to the social information flows of the transaction. At the end of the day, the children of greater Toronto are the happy beneficiaries of the course.

The Ultimate Realization: “Information is Everywhere!!!”

The video concludes with a phrase that guides all my work: “Information is everywhere!” By approaching an adorable latex sculpture with an academic sensibility and rigor, students realize that information is not confined to databases or libraries. It lives in the dexterity and know-how of our hands, the stories and affirmations we share, and the smiles and gifts we exchange. 

References and Resources

Bates, M. J. (1999). The invisible substrate of information science. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 50(12), 1043–1050.

Giovinco, G. (2019). The big book of balloon art: More than 100 fun sculptures. Dover Publications.  

Hartel, J. (2003). The serious leisure frontier in library and information science: Hobby domains. Knowledge Organization, 30(3-4), 228–238. 

Hartel, J. (2020). The red thread of information. Journal of Documentation, 76(3), 647–656.

Hartel, J. [INFIDEOS]. (2025, June 15). Clothing as information (CoLIS keynote teaser) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/-KPEOvlA9w8

Hartel, J. [INFIDEOS]. (2026, January 20). Balloon animal twisting (An information workshop) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/-nAdAFfAVlIs

Lloyd, A. (2010). Information literacy landscapes: Information literacy in education, workplace and everyday contexts. Chandos Publishing.

Solhjoo, N. (2025). The multispecies perspective in library and information science. Information Research, 30(CoLIS), 323–330. 

Solhjoo, N. (Ed.). (2026). Multispecies information science (1st ed.). Routledge.